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Saturday, December 28, 2013

Again I wanted to acknowledge some films that I watched for the first
time this year that weren't just released in 2013. The last two years I revealed the films exclusively using a
screen shot, challenging readers to figure out what the film is
themselves. I have done it the same way this year.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Before I get into the main list - a total of 50 films I thoroughly enjoyed in 2013 that had a release in an Australian cinema over the course of the year (Jan 1-Dec 26) - I will mention some great films that screened exclusively at film festivals, or has been screened for media before a 2014 cinema release.

Friday, December 20, 2013

Lets have a look at the films hitting screens on Australia's biggest theatrical release day - Boxing Day. Having seen five of the seven films (Drinking Buddies comes exclusively to Nova, Melbourne) I can declare it a much better group than last year's, surprisingly topped by the still-unremarkable Samsara. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Les Miserables and Wreck-It Ralph were all disappointing.

Disney are back with Frozen andPeter Jackson returns with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with Steven Frears' Philomena, Jonathan Teplitzky's The Railway Man and Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty joining the wonderful indie duo Short Term 12 (Destin Cretton) and Drinking Buddies (Joe Swanberg).

Short Term 12 (★★★★1/2) - Wonderfully written and directed by Destin Cretton, Short Term 12
is actually based on Cretton’s 2008 short film of the same name, which
also stars Brie Larson and several other cast members. It is a sincere
film that is full of life, with fantastic performances and arresting
drama that provokes almost every emotion imaginable from an audience.
Infusing well-suited humour, and without overdone sentiment, Cretton
beautifully balances the uplifting and the heartbreaking in an authentic
telling of tremendously moving human stories.

Grace (Larson) is a twenty-something supervisor
of a Southern California foster-care facility called Short Term 12. She
works long, tough hours as a nurturing and counseling presence for
damaged and at-risk teenagers and provided leadership for her colleagues
(some of whom are experienced, others we join on their first day). She
loves her long-term boyfriend Mason (John Gallagher Jr),
who also works at Short Term 12, and their mutual understanding of the
line between their professional and romantic relationship is one of the
many charms in the film. These two are perfect for one another, and it
is obvious. Over the course of the film Grace will be forced to deal
with a mounting series of personal anxieties that have been bubbling
beneath the surface as a result of some unexpected recent news and the
arrival of a new girl Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever), whom she closely relates
to. This begins to affect both her relationship and her profession until
she is forced to take on her own advice.

We learn plenty about each of these layered, endearing characters –
Mason’s childhood situation and what inspired him to take on this
profession, the severity of the gifted Marcus’ (Keith Stanfield)
frustrations and the crippling fear he has of the outside world –
through surprising ways. They are all so richly explored that come the
end of the film they feel like new friends. There is something graceful about how this cleverly structured film
unravels. There is a natural sense of energy to every scene – from the
jubilant birthday celebrations, to the devastatingly personal one-on-one
shares – an effortless chemistry between the cast and an expertly
photographed fly-on-the-wall style that has clearly been helmed by a
very intelligent filmmaker.

Quite simply, Short Term 12 is a wonderful film. Larson is terrific and gives her challenging role her all. Tackling serious
issues with optimism, it possesses an authenticity that comes about so
rarely and embraces the essential role of the foster-carer and the daily
strain they put themselves through to ensure others have a better life.
I didn’t want to leave these characters. It is one of the year’s best
films, make it a Boxing Day priority.

Drinking Buddies (★★★★1/2) - Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson (outstanding and perfectly cast) star as Kate and Luke,
inseparable friends and co-workers who could be more. Their respective
personal lives – Luke is discussing marriage with his long-time
girlfriend, while Kate is in the midst of another relationship that
looks set to fail – and their many a shared beer, complicate matters,
however. Joe Swanberg’s observant, funny, relatable and quite brilliant
comedy/drama intricately examines male-female friendships, the everyday
behaviour of likeable white middle class individuals and the emotional
strain that stems from their various relationships.

Kate and Luke work at a Chicago craft brewery. He’s part of the brewery
team, she’s in the office and on the phone, coordinating functions. They
have lunch together on a daily basis, hang out after work at the local
pub and sometimes end up snuggling together passed out on the couch.
Luke and his girlfriend of six years, Jill (Anna Kendrick), are
contemplating marriage, a topic she continually suggests they agree to
talk about in the future, sensing that Luke is reluctant and having
second thoughts. Though Luke’s relationship with Kate has never crossed
any boundaries, it is an unorthodox one. He loves Jill, that is clear,
but is she right for him? Kate has been going steady with Chris (Ron
Livingston), a music producer, but their relationship seems to lack
spark. Chris extends an invite to Luke and Jill to join he and Kate at his
family’s holiday house. There they find themselves naturally paired up –
Chris with Jill, Luke with Kate – with the ensuing entanglements
appearing to change the course of both relationships.

What is a stroke of genius is Swanberg’s decision to allow his actors to
improvise their dialogue and have control over their character’s
personalities – even to the point of choosing their own clothes – which
made their interactions unpredictable and believable. These people talk
like everyday people – broken, idle chitchat and sometimes speaking but
not actually saying anything – with the actors beautifully conveying
their emotions through the organic progression of the conversations.

While there are dramatic elements Drinking Buddies is a very funny film. The genuine performances ensure that we care for these
characters – so much so that we feel like they are our own friends come
the end of the fim. Kendrick and Livingston are excellent too, and in an
even smaller role so is Jason Sudeikis as Kate and Luke’s boss. In one
of many memorable sequences Kate and Jake's boss (Jason Sudeikis) joins his employees for a night out.
Having drunk too much, he tries to make small talk, only to learn that
he just doesn’t fit in. It is the little moments such as these, the bold
reliance on cast chemistry, improvised dialogue and spontaneous emotion,
as well as the fantastic setting offered by the brewery, that gives Drinking Buddies immense charm and those rare qualities that prompt one to return to this chapter of these character’s lives again.

David O. Russell’s second film to hit Australian screens over the
past twelve months – following his masterful romantic comedy/drama Silver Linings Playbook - is American Hustle,
a stylish, complex and genre defiant 70’s-set crime-caper with a
wonderful ensemble cast. Endowed with a manic sense of pace – the
characters talk fast, the camera is always active and conflicting tones
co-exist within the same scene – Russell and his co-screenwriter Eric
Warren Singer have successfully managed to wrangle this convoluted piece
of history into a cohesive screenplay with an entertaining fictional
twist. It is an impressive achievement that takes a little while to
process and a second viewing, once we understand each of the players and
where they end up, is perhaps essential.

It is Christian Bale’s Irving Rosenfeld, a brilliant con man, who
brings the emotional core to this loaded film. Along with his partner
and lover, Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), Rosenfeld has built a successful
foundation of financial scams and fake art dealings on top of a
legitimate dry cleaning business. When a wildly ambitious and
unpredictable FBI Agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) nabs them, they
are forced to help him take out corrupt Jersey politicians, and in
extension, intimidating members of the mafia, by conning them into
taking bribes. They don’t spend time in prison, and DiMaso makes a name
for himself. Their plan comes to involve the Mayor of Camden, New
Jersey, Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner), who gets caught between
friendship with Rosenfeld and the FBI ABSCAM scandal, and unexpectedly
Rosenfeld’s wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence).

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Dendy Cinemas is proud to announce that the Dendy customer will soon be able to watch quality movies and TV shows at home or on the go with the launch of its video on demand service – Dendy Direct. Dendy Direct will be the first video on demand service offered by an independent cinema chain in Australia.

Dendy Direct will have movies to rent and own in addition to TV content available to purchase. The Dendy customer will be able to watch their content on a variety of devices: desktop/PC, tablet, mobile (iOS and Android) and through an exclusive application on Samsung Smart TVs.The Dendy Direct user experience has been developed with the lover of quality film in mind and curation at the core of its offering. The bespoke storefront has been designed to facilitate simple navigation and a hassle free selection process. It will deliver the Dendy customer a rich and seamless experience, unlike any other digital platform in the market.

Greg Hughes, CEO of Dendy Cinemas, says “Dendy is a strong brand with a loyal community. Dendy Direct, our new video on demand service, will enable us to meet more of the Dendy customer’s entertainment needs, whether that be cinema or home entertainment content. With the addition of Dendy Direct, our brand proposition will encompass transactions across a broad spectrum of product types and lifecycles”.

Created in partnership with Massive Interactive, Dendy Direct will set the standard for quality video platforms in Australia.

Ron Downey, CEO of Massive Interactive, says "Massive Interactive is delighted to be Dendy's technical partner for the Dendy Direct video storefront. This exciting new venture combines Dendy's detailed knowledge of cinema and movie-watchers with Massive's expertise in online video store end to end solutions and storefronts on multiple devices. Australians who love Dendy's quality brand proposition will soon be able to enjoy it in their own home on a device of their choice".

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Family can be messy, but when a sourly dysfunctional family with such
a venomous matriarch, such deep-rooted conflicts and tumultuous secrets
come together under the one roof, we can expect it to implode in
spectacular fashion. In the scalding, emotionally charged August: Osage County, directed by John Wells andadapted for the screen by Tracy Letts (Killer Joe)
from his own Pulitzer Prize-winning play, a brilliant ensemble cast
trade verbal blows in the rural Midwest. Darkly hilarious and brimming
with intensity, this complex family drama perhaps overstays its welcome
and lathers on too many skeletons, but has a deeply affecting resonance
thanks to the extraordinary work of Meryl Streep and co, and one
firecracker of a screenplay.

The film’s opening sequence introduces us to Beverly Weston (Sam
Shepard), a renowned poet with a drinking problem, and his wife Violet
(Streep). Violet suffers from mouth cancer and has been left with signs
of aggressive chemo treatment. She has also developed an addiction to
prescription drugs, and with Beverly no longer willing or able to take
care of her, he has hired a caregiver.

A few weeks later Violet’s daughter Barbara (Julia Roberts) receives a
call from her sister Ivy (Julianne Nicholson). Violet – wearyingly
negative, consistently intoxicated, and spewing hateful insults – is
distraught by the sudden disappearance of Beverly, which results in the
entire family being called upon to search for him, only to find out that
he has committed suicide. Barbara’s husband Bill (Ewan McGregor) and
daughter Jean (Abigail Breslin), her sister Karen (Juliette Lewis) and
fiance Steve (Dermot Mulroney), along with Violet’s sister Mattie Fae
(Margo Martindale), brother-in-law Charles (Chris Cooper) and nephew
‘Little’ Charles (Benedict Cumberbatch) assemble at the Weston house
following the funeral. From there tempers flare as long-term
frustrations combust, secrets are uncovered, and a slew of grievances
follow with nobody evading involvement. Violet comes to realise just how
toxic her influence over her divergent family has been, and how the
lives of her daughters have been forever affected as a result.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Wonderfully written and directed by Destin Cretton (I Am Not A Hipster), Short Term 12
is actually based on Cretton’s 2008 short film of the same name, which
also stars Brie Larson and several other cast members. Premiering at the
2013 SXSW Film Festival Short Term 12 won the Grand Jury
Narrative Feature Award and the Narrative Audience Award, and has since
been nominated for several Independent Spirit Awards. It is a sincere
film that is full of life, with fantastic performances and arresting
drama that provokes almost every emotion imaginable from an audience.
Infusing well-suited humour, and without overdone sentiment, Cretton
beautifully balances the uplifting and the heartbreaking in an authentic
telling of tremendously moving human stories.

So observant is this study of the relationship between caretakers and
residents at a foster-care facility that you leave questioning whether
Cretton has had some experience in this environment himself.
Extraordinarily, he has worked in a facility like the one he depicts,
and has actually drawn influence from his personal encounters. It is a
film about the emotional and physical scarring suffered my many youths,
and the role these facilities (and passionate supervisors) play in
offering a safe environment for temporary refuge and in helping to ease
them back into society.

Grace (Larson, 21 Jump Street) is a twenty-something
supervisor of a Southern California foster-care facility called Short
Term 12. She works long, tough hours as a nurturing and counseling
presence for damaged and at-risk teenagers and provided leadership for
her colleagues (some of whom are experienced, others we join on their
first day). She loves her long-term boyfriend Mason (John Gallagher Jr, The Newsroom),
who also works at Short Term 12, and their mutual understanding of the
line between their professional and romantic relationship is one of the
many charms in the film. These two are perfect for one another, and it
is obvious. Over the course of the film Grace will be forced to deal
with a mounting series of personal anxieties that have been bubbling
beneath the surface as a result of some unexpected recent news and the
arrival of a new girl Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever), whom she closely relates
to. This begins to affect both her relationship and her profession until
she is forced to take on her own advice.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

I have to note that there have been a few 2013 Australian releases I didn't get the chance to see (mostly through limited exposure), which perhaps makes this list a little premature. They include Save Your Legs, Patrick, 100 Bloody Acres, Lasseter's Bones and In Bob We Trust. The chances of me seeing these films before the end of the year are very slim, so I am going to recognize the best of very recent Australian cinema without their consideration.

While I quite enjoyed Catriona McKenzie's outback-set coming-of-age adventure-drama Satellite Boy and some elements of Baz Luhmann's outrageously overblown adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic, The Great Gatsby, they fall just short of this list.

My #4 selection actually came out in Australian cinemas late 2012, but missed the consideration cutoff for the 2012 AACTA Awards. As it is amongst this year's AACTA nominees, and as I have begun to appreciate it a lot more now than I did when I first watched it, I have decided to draw some attention to it.

5. Drift - A good-looking Australian surf drama directed by
Morgan O’ Neil (who also wrote the screenplay) and Ben Nott, tells the
story of Andy (Myles Pollard) and Jimmy (Xavier Samuel) Kelly, who
escaped from Sydney with their mother (Robyn Malcolm) in their teens, to
a surfing hotspot in the Margaret River region in Western Australia.
Over a decade later, Jimmy has become a gifted talent with the potential
to take on the worlds best. With their mother still in debt from the
mortgage, Andy decides to start an ambitious entrepreneurial venture,
which unites the skills of the family, as well as some local friends
including JB (Sam Worthington), a Combi-dwelling surf photographer and
his companion from Hawaii, Lani (Lesley-Ann Brandt) and personally
crafted surf gear straight out of their backyard.

Driftfocuses on a small pocket of this development,
but surf gear is everywhere in Australia and the carefree beach-dwelling
lifestyle will be relatable to anyone who has ever lived near or
visited a coastal tourist spot. Commendably, it is a film about the
drive required to embrace your passion, the selfless decisions we make
for one another and the importance of maintaining a strong sibling
relationship and surrounding yourself with friends you can trust. It is a shame the script is dragged under by some forced drama and
antagonism despite the compelling central relationship between the
brothers. There are some convenient and far-fetched developments in the
final act, in which the future of the family business predictably rests
in a competitive event. The spectacular surfing captures possess plenty
of tension, but the film’s dark turn into crime and drug abuse is less
effective.

The charismatic Pollard is especially impressive. He builds an endearing
everyman who in the wake of a serious injury in his youth saw a
potential career cut short. He had to settle into a stable but
unrewarding job to take care of his family. Headstrong and ambitious, he
embraces his ‘go-for-it’ attitude and decides to take a chance and try
and steer his family out of debt. He knows it will take a lot of hard
work – knowledge not shared by his irresponsible younger brother – and
he cultivates his family’s unique skills, his own business interests, as
well as JB’s insight into creative publicity, into an expansive
business with potential.

4. Dead Europe - Adapted by Louise Fox from the novel of
the same name by Christos Tsiolkas, Dead Europe tells the disturbing tale of a young
Greek-Australian photographer, Isaac (Ewen Leslie, JewboyandSleeping Beauty),
who, while attending an exhibition of his works, transports his
recently deceased father’s ashes from Australia to his ancestral
homeland in Greece. Visiting Europe for the first time, Isaac finds it
not only a rich environment for future work, but comes to learn about
his father’s sinister past involving a young Jewish boy at the end of
World War II. Isaac’s world begins to unravel as he journeys from Athens
to Paris to Budapest and realizes he cannot escape the ghosts of the
past. There is an intense clash of inherent guilt, embedded prejudice,
sordid behaviour and personal discovery.

Dead Europe is an odd film, and having not read
Tsialkas’ novel I found the narrative difficult to penetrate. The story
is episodic, the developments are jarring and often lack context, and
rather than simultaneously focus on the two stories – Isaac’s and his
father’s – it reveals the latter almost exclusively through testimony. A problem I had with the film was that the information Isaac collects about his late father and his family’s
past doesn’t feel earned, but falls into his lap often through
inexplicable convenience and following some questionable decisions. Isaac
comes to realize that the ghosts of his father’s past – embedded within
the architecture of Europe, and the still-prevalent social issues – are
making their presence felt.

Dead Europe is smartly shot by Germaine
McMicking and director Tony Krawitz builds a tense, unsettling atmosphere and makes
excellent use of the locations, simultaneously capturing the beauty and
the ugly side of these picturesque European cities. The intense tone is
enhanced by a sensational synth score from Jed Kurzell, who worked on Snowtown.This bleak and unpleasant story eats at your
soul and left a grimy mark that I am still carrying. The daring 80-odd-minute adaptation
feels like it is missing many pieces, which is unfortunate, because
there is plenty to admire. A beguiling ending ensures it is
contemplative and resonating and Leslie and Csokas are strong in their roles.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Much like last year I am immersing myself in the awards season in the
lead up to the 86th Academy Awards. I am trying my hardest to take the opportunity to catch all of the films likely to be in contention, and I have much to look forward to over the course of the next month. Again, I am providing regular updates and
commentary on the season for Graffiti With Punctuation.Head
over there for my articles on the Independent Spirit Awards
nominations and winners at the European Film Awards, Los Angeles
Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review amongst others.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

In cinemas this week: One Life (December 9), American Hustle, Battle of the Year and The Gilded Cage.

American Hustle - A fictional film set in the alluring world of one of the most stunning
scandals to rock our nation, American Hustle tells the story of
brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale), who along with his
equally cunning and seductive British partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams)
is forced to work for a wild FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper).
DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia that's
as dangerous as it is enchanting. Jeremy Renner is Carmine Polito, the
passionate, volatile,
New Jersey political operator caught between the con-artists and Feds.
Irving's unpredictable wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) could be the one
to pull the thread that brings the entire world crashing down. Like
David O. Russell's previous films, American Hustle defies genre, hinging
on raw emotion, and life and death stakes.

One Life - Daniel Craig narrates a feature length documentary about survival in the natural world.

Battle of the Year - An international dance crew tournament that attracts all the best teams
from around the world, but the Americans haven't won in fifteen years.
Los Angeles Hip Hop mogul Dante (Alonso) wants to put the country that
started the Sport back on top. He enlists his hard-luck friend Blake
(Holloway), who was a championship basketball coach, to coach his team.
Armed with the theory that the right coach can make any team champions,
they assemble a Dream Team of all the best dancers
across the country. With
only three months until Battle of the Year, Blake has to use every
tactic he knows to get twelve talented individuals to come together as a
team if they're going to bring the Trophy back to America where it
started.

The Gilded Cage - Writer/director
Ruben Alves’ enormously charming, semi-autobiographical Parisian comedy
is the story of a loving, hardworking married couple whose long-held
dream of returning to their homeland finally comes true – only to be
secretly undermined by their overly dependent friends and neighbours.Maria (Rita Blanco) and José (Joaquim de Almeida) emigrated from
Portugal 30 years ago. Ever since, they have lived in the modest ground
floor lodgings of a chic apartment building in Paris, raising their now
adult daughter and teenage son, and becoming utterly indispensible to
all around them. When José learns he has inherited the family winery and the couple’s
dream of returning to Portugal is now possible, they are elated – but
struggle with how to tell those around them. However, word of the big
news spreads anyway, and soon their family, neighbours, friends and
employers are scrambling behind the scenes to find ways to prevent them
from leaving.

Weekly Recommendation: American Hustle. David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook is still one of my favourite films of the year. Having a second film released in Australian cinemas in 2013 is extraordinary. I cannot wait. Also, we get it a week before the U.S.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, from a screenplay by Lee, Frozen is loosely based on Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale The Snow Queen and
sees Disney make a glorious return to the classical musical-animation,
which included a string of masterpieces in the early 90′s, but in
stereoscopic 3D rather than hand drawn. Returning us to a magical realm
of kingdoms and princesses, with an entertaining adventure tale of
fraying sisterhood, cursed sorcery and hapless snowmen, this stunning
animated feature is perfect family viewing this holiday season.

Elsa (Broadway star Idina Menzel), the princess of Arendelle
possesses the rare ability to conjure ice and snow. When she
accidentally freezes her younger sister Anna (Kristen Bell) as a child,
the King and Queen seek help from Trolls who manage to heal Anna, but
are forced to remove any memory of her sister’s powers. In order to
protect Elsa the family locks themselves away in the castle, with Elsa,
out of fear of hurting her sister again, remaining in isolation. A rift
develops between the sisters as they grow up, which continues until the
day of Elsa’s royal coronation, and the anticipated re-opening of the
castle, several years later.

When Elsa rejects Anna’s acceptance of the whim marriage proposal by
the visiting Prince Hans (Santino Fontana), her secret powers are
exposed to all, including the visiting dignitaries. When the entire
Kingdom is sent into an eternal winter, greedy profiteers target the
fleeing Elsa. Anna, with the help of some companions she meets on her
journey – a rouge ice trader named Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), his royal
reindeer Sven, and her childhood snowman Olaf (Josh Gad), re-created as
part of the magic – set out on a journey through the frozen, snow-capped
realm to find and protect Elsa, and help her to save Arendelle.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Everyone knows, or has known, someone like our protagonist in The Spectacular Now, Sutter Keely (Miles Teller, Rabbit Hole).
He’s the popular jock – a likable, confident guy who is a lot of fun to
be around, but we know isn’t going places. He’s the class clown who
doesn’t care about his grades and holds no aspirations for college. In
fact, he seems to have no aspirations at all, other than to breeze
through his casual job, cruise around the neighbourhood and have as much
day-to-day fun as he can. He’s the kind of guy you enjoy having around,
and who’s wild behaviour you humour, but ultimately feel a little sorry
for.

Sutter is also a guy that has developed, through the introduction to
alcohol from a young age, a concerning drinking problem. This affliction
creates a suppressive haze over Sutter’s grim realities and an
exaggerated carefree attitude. Young love, coping with an absent parent
and learning to personally cultivate your individual identity, with
timely consideration for not just the present, but the future too, are
other key themes addressed within. The Spectacular Now isadapted from Tim Tharp’s novel of the same name by Scott Neustadteu and Michael H. Weber (500 Days of Summer).

Ender's Game - In the near future, a hostile alien race (called the Formics) have
attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet
Commander Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In
preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Hyrum Graff
(Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the
best young children to find the future Mazer. Ender Wiggin (Asa
Butterfield), a shy, but strategically brilliant boy is pulled out of
his school to
join the elite. Arriving
at Battle School, Ender quickly and easily masters increasingly
difficult war games, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst
his peers. Ender is soon ordained by Graff as the military's next great
hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he's
trained by Mazer Rackham, himself, to lead his fellow soldiers into an
epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human
race. Based on the best-selling, award winning novel.Delivery Man - The story of affable
underachiever David Wozniak, whose mundane life is turned upside down
when he finds out that he fathered 533 children through sperm donations
he made twenty years earlier. In debt to the mob and rejected by his
pregnant girlfriend, things couldn't look worse for David when he is hit
with a lawsuit from 142 of the 533 twenty-somethings who want to know
the identity of the donor. As David struggles to decide whether or not
he should
reveal his true
identity, he embarks on a journey that leads him to discover not only
his true self but the father he could become as well.

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 - Cloudy 2 picks up where Sony Pictures
Animation's hit comedy left off. Inventor Flint Lockwood's genius is
finally being recognized as he's invited by his idol Chester V to join
The Live Corp Company, where the best and brightest inventors in the
world create technologies for the betterment of mankind. It's
always been Flint's dream to be recognized as a great inventor, but
everything changes when he discovers that his most infamous machine
(which turns water into food) is still operating and is now creating
food-animal hybrids - "foodimals!" With the fate of humanity in his
hands, Chester sends Flint and his friends on a dangerously delicious
mission, battling hungry tacodiles, shrimpanzees, apple pie-thons,
double bacon cheespiders and other food creatures to save the world
again!

The Spectacular Now - With sly humor and an intensity of feeling, The Spectacular Now
(directed by James Ponsoldt, Smashed) creates a vivid, three-dimensional portrait
of youth confronting the funny, thrilling and perilous business of
modern love and adulthood. This is the tale of Sutter Keely (Miles
Teller), a high school senior and effortless charmer, and of how he
unexpectedly falls in love with "the good girl" Aimee Finecky (Shailene
Woodley). What starts as an unlikely romance becomes a sharp-eyed,
straight-up snapshot
of the heady confusion
and haunting passion of youth - one that doesn't look for tidy truths.
The film was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber (500 Days of Summer) and also features wonderful supporting turns from Brie Larson,
Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Linked review by Cam Williams, Graffiti With Punctuation.

Monday, December 2, 2013

<
Dates may change of course, and new films could be added, but here is a
look at some of the potential cinema highlights over the next three
months - which includes the very busy Christmas holiday season (Boxing Day, New Year's Day and key dates in January) and the exciting time when many of the year's Oscar contenders (this year American Hustle, Saving Mr Banks, Inside Llewyn Davis, 12 Years A Slave, Dallas Buyers Club and All is Lost to name some) finally hit Australian screens. We actually get American Hustle before the States, which is a great score, while the Boxing Day release of The Wolf of Wall Street makes it one of the very last to screen for Oscar voters. It hits screens here
at the end of January, which is somewhat of a miracle considering the journey it has taken.

The variety of films in cinemas is rarely more diverse in the calendar year, the quality rarely as consistent. This has already been a great year, and having already seen The Spectacular Now, Frozen and 12 Year's A Slave, I know that this Summer season will offer something for everyone.

Here are 25 titles to mark in your calendars.

Ender's Game (Dec 5)

The Spectacular Now (Dec 5)

Kill Your Darlings (Dec 5)

American Hustle (Dec 12)

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (Dec 19)

Short Term 12 (Dec 26)

Frozen (Dec 26)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Dec 26)

The Railway Man (Dec 26)

Philomena (Dec 26)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Dec 26)

Drinking Buddies (Melbourne/Nova only) (Dec 26)

August: Osage County (Jan 1)

Saving Mr Banks (Jan 9)

Inside Llewyn Davis (Jan 16)

Her (Jan 16)

The Great Beauty (Jan 23)

The Wolf of Wall Street (Jan 23)

12 Years A Slave (Jan 30)

The Past (Feb 6)

Dallas Buyers Club (Feb 13)

Blue is the Warmest Color (Feb 13)

All is Lost (Feb 20)

Nebraska (Feb 20)

Gloria (Feb 27)

What are your most anticipated films for the next three months? I am especially excited for American Hustle, Short Term 12, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Inside Llewyn Davis, Her, The Great Beauty, Blue is the Warmest Color and All Is Lost. Are
there any that I have left off this list with a confirmed release date
that you can recommend?